Even in Israel, it was hard to escape the worldwide
celebration of the Christian New Year. The fact that it took
place on Shabbos made it less present than it would otherwise
have been, since we are cut off from the modern media on
Shabbos kodesh, but there was still an unusual
awareness of the change in the year, primarily due to the
famous millennium computer bug.

In Adar II, 5703 (1943) HaRav Yonah Mertzbach zt'l
published the following article in the chareidi publication
HaDerech, dealing with the disastrous halachic problems
created by the aliya from Europe. This immigration included
people disbarred from Jewish marriage, as well as bogus
converts to Judaism who threatened to mix with the general
populace in the Holy Land.

Anyone who wants to stimulate public discussion on a topic is
faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, if he speaks politely
it is doubtful that the media will bother reporting it to the
public. Today when people constantly chase after favorable
media coverage, anyone speaking in a matter of fact, well-
bred manner is of no interest to the newspapers, television,
or radio.

One cannot help but be amazed and bewildered when studying
the parshiyos describing the ten plagues visited upon
Egypt. Hashem, the A-mighty, Supreme Being, engages in
`negotiations' with a flesh-and-blood king, a mortal creature
of dust and ashes, a fleeting shadow, a wisp of nothing.

There is now reason to hope that the two young Jewish girls
who have been the focus of much of the Orthodox Jewish
world's attention in recent months may yet be removed from
the custody of their nonobservant, reportedly meshumad
father in Italy and perhaps even returned, as is their
wish, to their observant Jewish mother in Eretz Yisroel.

Standing in front of a dining-room full of bochurim as the
guest speaker at the Mesivta of Long Beach's weekly melave
malka, I shared with them some of the "highlights" of the
preceding days -- the tragic drug-related death of a former
yeshiva student in Boro Park, the reports of several criminal
investigations and allegations surrounding Orthodox Jews --
and I lamented the shame and dishonor brought upon the entire
community when terrible events of this nature are splashed
across the pages of the newspapers and shape the public
perception of Torah Jewry.

While the headlines herald daily of fires, strife, politics
we are also witness to how the Arabs manage to infiltrate so
deeply into the heart of Eretz Yisroel near Zichron Yaakov
and cause so much damage.